The Infernal Devices Reimagined

Preparations

Dawn had turned the horizon a crisp gold when Mr. Herondale came to get her. Tessa had been reading for hours by then. At some point, she'd had started humming to herself a song she'd thought she'd long forgotten, sung to her on cold nights by a woman long dead. She had finished the book a few minutes ago. Now she was staring at Sydney Carton's last words as if doing so for long enough would make it reveal its secrets to her. Now that she'd read it again, Tessa could see his resemblance to Mr. Herondale, but she wondered who would be his Lucie Manette. She wondered if fate would ever give Mr. Herondale a Lucie Manette.

"Ms. Gray?" Mr. Herondale called, breaking Tessa out of her thoughts. "Charlotte is sending a patrol out to find the passageways in de Quincey's manor. She would like to know if you want to come along."

"Yes," Tessa replied, standing up, "I would love to."

The sun was warm in the sky, thus Mr. Herondale had deemed it suitable to throw the curtains open, but soon, cold wind slid up Tessa's bodice like frozen fingers. The two men hardly seemed to feel it, so Tessa decided to leave the carriage windows are they were. As the carriage trudged through London's narrow streets, its occupants sat in silence. However, it was a good silence, one that felt more a glittering summer day than a dreary winter's night. Mr. Herondale and Mr. Carstairs never spoke, yet seemed to communicate in their own way. When Mr. Herondale wished to rest his eyes, Mr. Carstairs knew to draw the curtains closed as to shade him from the sun's glare.

De Quincey's garish manor peaked through the stunted wooden hovels. Mr. Carstairs whispered something to Mr. Herondale that made him break into a boyish grin. He has dimples when he smiles,  Tessa noted, and his eyes gain a certain lively radiance. A few of his teeth were chipped, but that did not stop his smile from being entrancing. Tessa shook her head. She was heading into the home of a madman in search of secret passageways, yet all she could think of was how handsome Mr. Herondale looked when he smiled.

A smattering of Nephilim were already inside of the manor, inspecting every nook and cranny to find the passageways. Some threw Tessa contemptuous looks, but Mr. Herondale and Mr. Carstairs drew around her in a protective circle to dissuade them. Tessa felt a rush of admiration for the both of them.  A woman with ashen blonde hair in dark man's clothing sashayed up to them.  Unlike evey other shadowhunter, she smiled at Tessa. "You must be Ms. Theresa Gray!" she announced. "You've become quite noteworthy in a very short time, Ms. Gray. Not all that is said of you paints you in a reputable light, but that is the very nature of fame, is it not? Rest assured, you are not likely to be lost to the flood of time. It is said that your... abilities are peerless."

"It is kind of you to say so," Tessa replied, carefully taking note of what she said of her reputablity. The woman struck herself in her face.

"How could I be so silly? I've forgotten that Ms. Gray and I haven't been introduced!" she held out her hand. "I am Ms. Margaret Keeley!"

"Do stop speaking soon, Greta. Your voice is reminescent of a wailing cat, left out on a cold day," Mr. Herondale said. Tessa was horrified, but the other woman only smiled wider.

"You are quite well aquainted with the wailing of cats, aren't you Will? They must all scream and flee when you come by. They say that cats can sense the rot in human souls."

"How strange. I was under the impression that we are to search this building for passageways, but it appears we are in truth to come up with clever japes," Mr. Carstairs chastized.

"We are to do both, in actuality," Mr. Herondale explained, "Charlotte said so herself. You must have been late when she was briefing." Mr. Carstairs rolled his eyes. At least Ms. Keeley had the grace to redden.

"My deepest apologies, Jem, Ms. Gray. It seems you've been forced to entertain a child. I'll take rid you of him."  She grabbed Mr. Herondale by his collar and dragged him away. Tessa turned to Mr. Carstairs and raised an eyebrow.

"Greta is vastly vivacious, but she has a good heart. She was one of the only other children who wasn't beastly to Will when he first came to the Institute," Mr. Carstairs said.

"Why were people beastly to Mr. Herondale?" Tessa asked, but Mr. Carstairs was already walking away. He fidled with a lion's head bust and scoured through a bookshelf. "What are you doing, Mr. Carstairs?" Mr. Carstairs put down the paper weight he was holding.

"I was hoping to set off a secret door..." he replied, looking away sheepishly, "This is usually how people find them in books. I'm afraid that I have no other outlet to find them. Secret passageways aren't a shadowhunters specialty, I'm afraid."

"Well, if there is a secret room behind a wall, then it would be hollow, wouldn't it?"

"When we do find this secret room, how do we get to it?"

"By breaking down the panels, I would imagine."

Mr. Carstairs rubbed his nose. "You're absolutely right." He set off to work, knocking on the walls. Tessa did so with him. Nephilim near them were a bit confused, but when Ms. Keeley saw what they were doing, she started knocking  on the walls, too, no questions asked. Mr. Herondale was less receptive to their actions.

"Does someone like on the other side of that wall?" he asked incerdulously, "He must be an enchanting man, for all three of you to be so eager to meet him."  Ms. Keeley's knock on a panel near the fireplace ran hollow. Tessa and Mr. Carstairs immediatley stopped their knocking and rushed to be by her side.

"Did I do something?" Ms. Keeley asked, confounded. Tessa nodded to Mr. Carstairs, and he drew his sword out of it's scabbard and sliced through the wall as though it was made of butter.

"By the Angel, Jem. Who is this man?" Mr. Herondale cried. Now, even more people were leering at them. Mr. Carstairs scraped away all the wood to reveal a long corridor heading further and further away.

"His name is Alexei de Quincey," Mr. Carstairs replied, "He's not very enchanting, but I am still very eager to meet him."

A few Nephilim scouts were sent off to see where the passageway lead. It emptied out into Chelsea, where a few other tunnels flew off into the four corners of the world. Instead of sending scouts through every single one, Charlotte asked Nate if de Quincey had any hideouts in Chelsea. Nate confirmed their suspicions, and the Enclave formed a plan to hunt him down. Every member of the London Enclave - who were all Nephilim above age 18 - was to surround his hideout. Mrs. Branwell was to go in with the Inquisitor Whitelaw, an older man with a stern face, were then to go in the building and ask the man to confess to his crimes. If he resisted, Nephilim would sweep into the building and quickly, efficiently, take every vampire there under arrest.

It 's a good plan, Tessa told herself,  it will not go wrong. But no matter how much she said them, the words would not feel real.